Kate's Point of View

The Ground Beneath My Feet

On August 18, 2015

When I walk around town, I make myself look up so I can admire roof lines and old architecture. But sometimes I need to better appreciate my view looking down.

Standing in a lobby of a an Art Deco building.

Standing in a lobby of an Art Deco building.

Walking down some marble stairs.

I love the vintage-style tiles in my bathrooms.

Vintage-style tiles in my bathroom while I stand at the sink.

Several months old, I still think the concrete is beautiful.

Standing on my driveway early in the morning.

My favorite part of working in a city is walking around over my lunch breaks.

Walking around in downtown Cincinnati over lunch.

We've recently refinished the hardwood floors in my house so walking barefoot is the new norm.

Walking barefoot through my home.

In Detroit, Michigan, visiting my Great Aunt Ceil.

I walk two adorable dogs - practical shoes only so I can keep up with a Boxer and a German Shepherd.

Walking Ellie, a German Shepherd, and Lennox, a Boxer.

Post inspiration here.

Flight of the Bumblebee

By Kate

On August 17, 2015

In gardening

In gardens around the city I see these big bumblebees slowly making their way from one plant to the next. Here’s a video I took last week of one bumblebee hanging out on a sunflower.

A video posted by Kate (@katespointofview) on Aug 12, 2015 at 4:23pm PDT

Four Poolside / Beachside Books from 2015

By Kate

On August 14, 2015

In books

While on vacation last week, I read four books, all published in 2015 and all good reads for some time at the beach or swimming pool.

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

When I read Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And all the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, it informed some of my television memories. When I read Funny Girl by Nick Hornby, it was absolutely informed by Armstrong’s book. How could it not be?

In Funny Girl, Sophie Straw navigates the journey from unknown to television starlet within a very short span of time. Her television career skyrockets and, though she ends up with a long, successful career, her greatest success is her first success. Set in the 1960’s, Funny Girl is as much about that time period as it is television of the time period and the cast of Barbara (and Jim), Straw’s television show.

I like Nick Horby. He creates flawed characters that I end up loving. His books don’t always stick with me, but fur the duration of each novel, I am his.

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley

I’m a sucker for packaging, and the style – from artwork to physical size – of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley is just adorable. Adorable!

In As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Flavia is sent away from England to boarding school in Canada at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy. The school is her mother’s alma mater and she knows that while there she will be there to be inducted into a mysterious organization known as the Nide, but has no fuirther details.

On FLavia’s first night in her new room at her new school, a body comes crashing down her chimney. Liking science and mysteries, she starts investigating the identity of the body as well as the disappearances of other girls at her school.

I think this series is for young adults. It reads like Pippi Longstocking for slightly older readers (which I mean as the highest of compliments). Bradley’s style is engaging and there is quirk aplenty to keep readers surprised. Highly recommend.

This is part of a series, the Flavia de Luce series, and I look forward to checking out more of Bradley’s books.

I received a copy of As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley free as part of GoodRead’s First Reads program.

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs

I’m equally loyal to the television show Bones as I am to the Kathy Reichs series on which the show is based – I’ve seen all episodes and read all books. The latest installment in the book series, Speaking in Bones, is the 18th book but still as entertaining as the first. I view these books like a big snack. They’re not there to make me smarter (though factoids are conspicuously inserted throughout each novel) or to help me grow as a person. They are just pure entertainment!

In the installment of the Bones series, forensic anthropologist Temperence Brennan works alongside an amateur sleuth named Hazel “Lucky” Strike. Lucky is pursuing what she believes to be the murder of eighteen-year-old Cora Teague. But the bones don’t match up, which leads Brennan down a path of murder and adventure. (All of the books lead down a path of murder and adventure.)

For other readers of the series, the roller coaster ride that is the love life of Brennan and Andrew Ryan continues. As of course it should.

It’s not hard to critiques these books but it’s so much more fun to just consume them.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

For book club this month we selected Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book quite like this one. Atkinson tells the story of Ursula Todd and her family starting in 1910. Although the story continues on on to near present, Ursula dies many times over. As do most of the other characters.

It’s like Atkinson is presenting to us the power of choice. Do this and things end one way. Make another choice and get another outcomes. The change in choice is often quite small and the outcome quite drastic.

There were a few parts early in Life After Life when I was confused but once I caught on to what Atkinson was doing… Well, I just wanted more.

Read the Book Before the Movie! “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers” by Loung Ung

By Kate

On August 13, 2015

In books, travel

So many great films are based on great books, but I am partial to the book versions and try to read them before seeing their cinematic adaptations.

Angelina Jolie Pitt is directing a Cambodia-set drama as a Netflix original movie, which will be based on First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung. I read the book back in 2009 immediately following a trip to Cambodia. It was a wonderful place to visit and an even more wonderful book.

Read a review of the book, which I originally published in 2009:

Helping Others Remember

Book Review of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

On a recent trip to Cambodia I got to witness it’s rich culture, lush landscapes and delicious, delicious food. At every turn I also saw the remnants of a painful past. I spent a hot afternoon walking through the Tuel Sleng Genocide Museum, having my breath taken away as I walked from room to room, each worse than the last. In one section of the former prison, I walked into a hastily made brick cell and felt so instantly claustrophobic I had to run out into the open air. The pictures, informational plaques and even the conversation, held via hand gestures, with a former prisoner couldn’t help me grasp the genocide that occurred not that long ago.

Later I went to Choeng Ek, the most (in)famous of the killing fields. I walked up to, around and even in the commemorative stupa that had been built to honor the murdered and to hold their remains. Seeing children’s skulls display evidence of so much violence with the cracks, dents and bullet holes broke my heart. Walking through the grounds and stepping on peoples’ bones and clothing remnants that were making their way up through the dirt… Knowing that every year the rains would bring up more remains…. How do people make peace with that? How do they move on?

Loung Ung lived through the genocide and has carried on her life by teaching others about what happened, helping them to survive the atrocities that seems to keep happening around the world. In her memoir First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers she tells of the Cambodia genocide from the eyes of a child. This perspective that makes what happened all the more heart-wrenching but also makes the facts easier to understand. (I use that word loosely, because I can never understand why what happened did, but I want to, need to, understand the facts of what did happen.)

Genocide is such a big concept. The Cambodia genocide was so messy, political, based on a series of events that made it possible. A child’s memory strips out all of the extraneous facts and delivers only what they know. In her memoir, Ung inserts the historical facts necessary to keep her story moving, but she inserts them as dialogue from her father delivered to her. History as would be explained to a small child doesn’t include the political intricacies that make our world so confusing. For this, I was grateful to Ung. Her tale helped me establish some basic knowledge from which I can expand with future reading.

A quick read, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is the kind of book you start reading and don’t want to put down. It’s a great introduction to anyone interested in visiting Cambodia, learning about their history or learning about genocide in general.

Memorial Stupa at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek in Phnom Penh. Some 8000 skulls are on display in the Stupa.

Barbed Wire at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh.

On Checking Out. Finally.

By Kate

On August 12, 2015

In travel

Sometimes I feel like there is a hamster living in my head who won’t get off of the damn wheel. He just keeps running and running and things won’t turn off. I lie in bed and and can’t shut down. I need to shut down. So I come up with workarounds.

In the evenings while I watch TV I’ll cut fabric for a quilt I’m working on. Or I’ll color in one of my multitude of coloring books (thanks to some birthday scores). The combination of keeping my head distracted and my hands busy, of using all of my senses at once so that I don’t have time to let my mind wander, that seems to work.

Last week I went on vacation with eleven other people. We went to an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic and I had few goals for the trip: have fun, make new friends and strengthen existing friendships and, most importantly, check out. I think I accomplished all three. And thank goodness! On a beach trip back in May I read a lot and got some sun but couldn’t get my head out of work and that sucks. For this trip, I worked uncomfortably fast in the weeks prior so I could go out of town feeling like I was all caught up at my job. Downside, my wrist was hurting for the week from rapid mousing and typing. Upside, I didn’t think about work. At all. Hallelujah!

During our one week getaway, I read only four books, about half as many as I read on a standard beach trip. Despite unlimited food and alcohol, I never felt too stuffed and imbibed less than expected. But I experienced my first foam party, attended vow renewals that had me tearing up because they were so sweet and got to go on a snorkeling cruise / party boat and swim in some of the bluest water I’ve ever seen. I spent dinners laughing at ridiculous stories, stared at the clear oceans waters and enjoyed the luxury that is a midday nap.